I need some help building some cabinet doors. My wife and I just bought our first house (YAHOO!!) and we are planning on updating our kitchen cabinets. The cabinets themselves are in good shape, however the door style is not our taste. We also plan to paint the cabinets white. I bought some select pine boards from Menards and was going to make the new cabinet doors – I’m going to keep it simple, and modern….

something like this (all white)...

I am looking for some basic advice on building techniques. My plan is to cut all the pieces to length, use a router to cut a 1/4” dado along the interior/center, use 1/4 lauan for the middle, and connect the “frame” using dowels (with my doweling jig). Is this a good technique? Is there a simpler way? Should I use 1/2” ply instead of 1/4”?

I made a mock up tonight of one, and there is a twist in it which means it won’t sit flat against the cabinet. I’m thinking if I used 1/2” MDF instead of 1/4” Lauan that it would decrease my chances of the door being twisted/warped.

I did not plane or joint any of the select boards. (By eye) they seemed really straight, and I’m pretty sure my blade was at 90 degrees when making all the cuts, but it still came out warped.

Any advice would be awesome, as I told my wife I could build these…..and don’t want to let her down….again :) :)

I got select pine boards 50% off at Menards, and I also bought a 4×8 sheet of 1/4” Lauan (MDF backed) plywood. The costs comes to about $5-6 dollars in wood per door! I’m just painting them white so don’t want to spend the money on Maple or hardwood (even though it would be more stable and harder)

I use this router bit set. Works great for me. I just built 14 doors out of poplar and birch bead board. I started with 5/4 and jointed and planed it to measure 3/4” to make sure that it would be straight. I love the bit set and there are numerous profiles available. When you do the glue up, make sure the door is sitting on a flat surface while it dries.

I have built doors with “straight” boards and had good success. If there is a slight bow, make sure they bow the same way as you make the doors. You can use adjustable hinges so that the door still closes flat on the handle side.

I learned the hard way that if the stiles aren’t jointed perfectly square on the edges, and the rails cut perfectly square on the ends, that it’s hard to avoid warping. Of course, warped panels can contribute to the problem.

I don’t think you need anything thicker than 1/4” for the panels.

-- I admit to being an adrenaline junky; fortunately, I'm very easily frightened

I have the same frame & stile bit set as Bill and also recommend them. One of the great things about that set for you is that it allows you to adjust the size of the slot to perfectly fit whatever panel material you use so they won’t rattle.

It doesn’t seem like poplar should be a lot more expensive than pine but I think that they will hold up better over time as cabinet door frames.

I also have to agree with runswithscissors in that I joint & plane everything and am meticulous with ensuring squareness. Even with that, you also have to make sure that you have a really good & flat reference surface to glue them up on. If your work surface isn’t flat, you could be inducing a twist when you glue them up.

You said that you’re looking for a modern look which I presume to mean the finished painted product needs to be smooth. If that’s the case, I would use poplar for the frames and 1/4 mdf for the panels. Lauan is a very open grain wood and I think that you’ll put a lot of time into sealing & sanding it before you get a smooth surface. Conversely, MDF will paint smooth with almost no effort.

If you’re paining them I think MDF for the panels would be better than the luan. Your design looks good but I think I would use poplar or maple for the frame. I’d prefer maple for wearability and dent resistance But I think pine would be too unstable. A lot of it you buy is not dried right and warps later. It can give you fits in door frames.

Jim

-- Jim Jakosh.....Practical Wood Products...........Learn something new every day!! Variety is the Spice of Life!!

Dak, I’ve had the Panel Warping Blues, too. For me the solution was in the clamp-up. Make double and triple certain the panel is flat and true when setting to cure and you should see a better result. Don’t overclamp, as that may build some internal stresses as well, that appear when the clamps come off. Hope that makes sense…

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. -- OldTools Archive --